The tragedy in Norway has touched both people’s hearts and minds, as the news media has brought to our attention the wide scale destruction and suffering attacker Anders Behring Breivik has inflicted. Some news reports have focused on Breivik’s supposedly being a right wing Christian fundamentalist, and began bombarding Christianity in general as if responsible for this atrocity. However, in a 1500+ page manifesto Breivik wrote, he states claiming to be a Christian is simply a “pose” adopted for political reasons
On the website Evolution News, a review of his manifesto reveals why he chose to align himself with a group supposedly espousing “Christian values.” He states: "My choice was based purely [on] pragmatism." (p. 1380). He goes on to explain that ‘Christianity’ has far more mass appeal than nationalism, white supremacy, or a revival of paganism, and so it is a more effective ‘banner’ under which to build his movement (p. 1381). He also states, “I'm not going to pretend I'm a very religious person as that would be a lie. I've always been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment.”
In reality, evolution and social engineering lies at the heart of his views. He believes countries that don’t enforce population controls should be allowed to starve to death (p. 1202), and that other countries shouldn’t intervene to help. He advocates a new form of eugenics, referring to how the Nazi’s of World War II poisoned the idea, but that basically it could be a positive tool that shouldn’t be abandoned (p. 1200). As you read through his philosophy of life, it becomes clear that he truly is a poser, as Biblical principles are totally void from his view of life and how one should actually live.
Breivik reminds me, sadly, of what Paul wrote of those who abandoned a knowledge of God in the first century, and were left with only a worldly, sin-based philosophy of life. “For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened” (Rom. 1:21). He also adds, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen” (Rom. 1:25). Thinking shaped by sin, instead of the will of God, results in all sort of perversity and tragedy (Rom. 1:28-32). To this end, the horrible tragedy in Norway is a result of godlessness, not New Testament Christianity.
I find Breivik’s use of the term “poser” as both revealing and frightening. How many people, even in the Lord’s church, could be described as posers? How many people wear the name of Christ but are not living life in Christ, not for Christ? Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). To live is to be Christ (Phil. 1:21), and Christ is to be our lives (Col. 3:4). The New Testament doesn’t sanction posing, but dedication. No, we won’t ever live in perfection of the will of God, but there’s a difference between seeking Christ in our lives, and expecting Christ to sanction whatever we do in life. How genuine is your faith, and the life it produces?
When others listen to your speech, and observe your lifestyle, what conclusion do they reach? Do they see Christ in you, or are you simply posing? You don’t have to act as a lunatic and murder indiscriminately to be a poser, as was Breivik. It is self-destructive spiritually to wear the name of Christ, but live like the world around us. “So then, brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:12-13). As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).
Robert Johnson
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